This application claims the benefit of the filing date under 35 U.S.C. xc2xa7119(b), of Japanese application No. 180,663/1998, filed Jun. 26, 1998, under the Paris Convention, with the Japanese Patent Office in Japan, the content of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
This invention relates to a virtual geographic spatial object generating system and a recording medium.
The term, xe2x80x9ca virtual geographic spatial objectxe2x80x9d recited herein means a map which is constructed such that even a plurality of map data bases, each differing in fundamental constituent information (attribute) as a map data base such as coordination system, scale, the representation form of geographic information, etc., can be handled as the same object on a unified space. The xe2x80x9cobjectxe2x80x9d in this case means geographic information. The attribute includes various kinds of representation form such as (1) display color; (2) plane rectangular coordinates and the coordinates of latitude and longitude, etc.; (3) scale such as 1/10,000, 1/500, etc.; and (4) geographic information such as long (4Byte), double (8Byte), etc.
There has been conventionally known a client/server (C/S) system as a technique for generating geographic spatial object wherein the client side (i.e. a terminal to be directly utilized by a user) is provided in advance with a program containing not only a retrieving condition for obtaining required geographic spatial information but also a communication system for a communication with the server, so that it is possible for the client to read a corresponding retrieval condition from the program and to perform the retrieval to a designated server. On the other hand, the server receiving the retrieval condition transmitted from the client initiates to retrieve geographic spatial information stored in the data base, and the retrieved geographic spatial information is then fed back to the client. As a result, the information which has been fed back to the client is displayed on a picture screen.
According to this prior art however, there is a problem that since the patterns of retrieval condition are stored in advance in the program of the client, even if it is certainly possible to perform a retrieval under the retrieval conditions that have been stored in advance, it is impossible to perform the retrieval in a case where information other than the stored patterns of retrieval condition is requested.
Further, in conventional systems an attribute such as display color is controlled as a whole by the server, so that when the retrieval of information is requested by a plurality of clients under the same retrieval conditions, it is impossible to display the information with various attributes differing from client to client.
Further, when the retrieval is to be performed from the client side to the server side, the communication method and physical position in relative to the server side that have been stored in advance in the program are to be employed. As a result, it is impossible to access the server side by means of a communication method which is not managed by the client side.
The object of the present invention is to provide a virtual geographic spatial object generating system, which is capable of coping with various retrieval conditions requested from the client, of easily changing the attribute such as display color according to the request made by individual user, and of accessing map data base by various communication methods with the client.
Namely, the virtual geographic spatial object generating system according to this invention is featured in that it comprises; process-executing means for executing a procedure based on the content of a message from a client; ID. notification means for reading a profile ID existing in individual user in response to a log-in request from the client and notifying the profile ID to said process-executing means; and processing means for generating a virtual geographic spatial object by performing a processing based on said profile ID.
The virtual geographic spatial object generating system of this invention is also featured in that it further comprises; position-informing means for notifying information on a stored position of script based on the aforementioned profile ID; and virtually generating means which reads the script from a script file on a basis of an input retrieval condition and said profile ID and generates geographic operators representing an operation using one or more operands from said script; wherein said processing means is designed to request a retrieval to a data base server depending on a kind of said geographic operator thus generated and to perform a processing based on said geographic operator, thereby enabling a utilization form to be changed without modifying the application of the client side.
The virtual geographic spatial object generating system of this invention is also featured in that said position-informing means is designed to notify information on a stored position of attribute information corresponding to said profile ID, thereby enabling the attribute information to be separately transmitted, thus saving a data transmission time.
The virtual geographic spatial object generating system of this invention is also featured in that it further comprises server access means for accessing the data base server according to the script and based on the retrieval condition in response to a request from said processing means, thereby enabling the client to connect with a data base server of new transmission system without necessitating a modification on the client side.
Further, this invention provides a computer-readable recording medium which is recorded with a program for enabling a computer to function as a virtual geographic spatial object generating system as mentioned above.